Noise disturbance is by far the most common anti-social behaviour reported to the police, local authorities and housing associations. It could be loud music and parties, lots of banging, construction or DIY in the middle of the night – anything that you consider unreasonable and is affecting your life.
So it was no surprise that within the first six weeks of the lockdown, Birmingham City Council saw a dramatic rise in domestic noise complaints as people spent more time at home. Council officers received 1,073 domestic noise complaints – such as barking dogs, music, TV and anti-social behaviour – between March 23 and May 6.
This is an 82 per cent increase on the figure for the same period in the previous year – 588 – and comes at a time when people may be more aware of noise around their home during work hours.
The figure for complaints about alarms going off went from 18 during the same period last year to 48 under lockdown.
The majority of Trident Group’s low level anti-social behaviour cases that the Community Safety Team deal with are noise related and to tackle this rise in noise nuisance, Trident Group is trialling The Noise App.
The app is the first digital solution for automating noise reporting. A digital breakthrough, it was developed by RHE Global to enable noise sufferers to use their smartphones to record noise and other data to corroborate their complaints.
Using The Noise App you can gather your own evidence of noise nuisance; within seconds you are able to make audio recordings of the noise (up to 30 seconds) and enter details about the nature of the disturbance, that make up an electronic noise diary. This can then be easily shared with Trident Group to support your complaint. The audio clips are unlikely to be sufficient on their own to determine if the noise is a statutory nuisance, but can be very helpful in deciding your priority level, and helping your complaint progress quickly.
The Noise App will allow us to monitor and review noise nuisance cases more precisely and will allow for Housing Officers to intervene at earlier stages and put in place preventative measures, ensuring the issue doesn’t escalate within the community.
To learn more on The Noise App, please see the videos below:
For more information, please contact the Community Safety Team on 0300 123 1113.